The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for electronic authentication of users. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to multi-factor authentication techniques that increase security by providing complex authentication of a user, while reducing inconvenience to the users being authenticated.
As electronic technology becomes increasingly affordable and powerful, commerce is increasingly conducted electronically online. Modern businesses typically offer access to services and sensitive data via online portals (e.g., the Internet), which may be accessed from numerous sites across the globe. Because the data and/or services provided by these businesses may be quite valuable, nefarious individuals may attempt to impersonate a user from one of the access sites, in an effort to gain unauthorized access to the data and/or to initiate unauthorized service transactions. To curb these efforts, businesses may implement primary authentication processes, as well as secondary authentication processes. For example, certain modern businesses have traditionally asked for username/password combinations as a primary authentication method. Further, these businesses may ask a user for answers to personal questions, which may act as a secondary mechanism for authenticating the user. Unfortunately, these secondary mechanisms may be quite inconvenient for the users. For example, the login process may become more complex, requiring a user to remember and enter answers to secondary questions. This may be quite cumbersome and inefficient. Accordingly, improved techniques for multi-factor (e.g., secondary) authentication are desired.